The Coin-Op Catastrophe Collection
We'll try and stop the madness, maybe amuse some and hopefully stop further destruction of any classic coin-op game.
We'll try and stop the madness, maybe amuse some and hopefully stop further destruction of any classic coin-op game.
This collection of bad repair and even worst coin operated game restoration photographs and stories are here to show the world just how out of control things can get with inexperienced game collectors / restorers and even hack game restoration shops.We will feature in the 'What's Weak this Week' section some pictures of what we see inside of games during our daily repair and restorations with related stories.
The 'The Lame List' will feature photos of parts that have been 'hacked' by game collectors, route owners and coin-op 'shopping shops'.
We will include some amusing background stories, what was hopefully learned by the mistake or hack repair and even what we think about all the mind numbing coin-op disasters we hear about or see first hand.
This page will be built by Pinball Medic, the general world wide coin-op collectors community and route people. If you have a picture or even just a story about a really unique repair or game restoration technique, please send us a Contact form (Coin-Op Catastrophe submission form coming very soon). Don't forget to include any photos with your tell (we will supply you with an email link for your photos). We will add them as soon as we can to this page and give you credit for the information (if you want credit).
All contact info is kept completely confidential. We will only post the first or last name and/or the state/country were the submission originated (if given permission).
Note: Postings and stories about auction companies or personal gripes can't legally be posted here and therefore can't be accepted. The number of stories would be too numerous anyway.
PBM or PM=A Pinball Medic submission.
Coin-Op Catastrophe
A plumber, while replacing a water heater ventilation duct, misstep and fail through the ceiling in this freakish accident. Thankfully, he only fell on the replaceable standard sized playfield glass on this wood rail flipperless pinball. There would have been no way to find a good scoreboard glass for this rare 'Bally Reserve' pinball game.
Photos and story where submitted by an Austin, Texas customer.
No one was hurt in this accident. Only the glass will Rest In Pieces.
Photos and story where submitted by an Austin, Texas customer.
No one was hurt in this accident. Only the glass will Rest In Pieces.
What a mess this caused all over the game owner's antiques, including a mechanical 5 cent slot machine on the right. |
Luckily, it was just the playfield glass and not the scoreboard glass. |
 Close up view of the damage. |
We're kind of hoping the diameter of the ceiling hole does not match the plumber's. (Insert your own plumber's crack or hole jokes here.)
FUN WITH FLAMESThis is contact cleaner in flames. WD-40 and contact cleaner are both very flammable and should never be inside a game repair shop.
A short history lesson:
WD-40 stands for Water Displacement formula number 40. It was developed as a rocket fuel addictive. Its function was to remove water from the fuel. It is not a lubricant or even a cleaning solution.
People can't help but to use WD-40 to wash down a stepper unit or relay contact. Both contact cleaner and especially WD 40 will leave a dielectric film on contacts that my be impossible to clean off. Eventually, these two hazardous chemicals will cause relay and slide contacts to not conduct when they are closed.
There is a tell of someone spraying down the whole relay board inside a good condition, but not functioning, electromechanical pinball game to the point were all of the relay contacts were dripping with the stuff (scoreboard parts are also often hosed down with this stuff). This game was later brought to a refurbishment shop and could not be repaired. It was simply too hard to clean off all of the WD-40. After all, you can't use contact cleaner to clean up after WD-40 has been applied. Contact cleaner has the added ability of eating up plastic parts like score reels.
All we like about WD-40 is its smell. We don't use it or recommend it for any purpose other then rocket fuel testing.
The above photo was not taken by us. It is a classic photo.
Submitted by PBM - Austin, Texas
'What's Weak this Week'
YUCK!What, were you raised in a barn? This pinball game was.
A pinball was delivered to our shop with a live rat inside! We could not keep her still enough to take a photo.
We took the back cover door off and she was peering out at us through the wire whole at the bottom of the bolted on backbox. Her name is now Pinney (because 'pin' is short for pinball).
Sadly, she is no longer with us, however, she was thoughtful enough to leave a game completely covered in her poop as shown.
We will now be telling our customers to not bother bring in a game in this condition.
Side Note: We have also bought an EM gun game with a live snake inside. It seemed to like curling around the score reels. It was a harmless garden snake, so it was set free in the back yard.
If your curios, get the scoop on all the poop photos: Poo_Photo1 Poo_Photo2 Poo_Photo3
Welcome to the glamorous world of coin-op game repair. We bet these high def pictures will end up scraped on 'G' for everyone to enjoy.
Submitted by PBM - Austin, Texas - Unfortunately
While not exactly a coin-op catastrophe, this is certainly weak.We got so lost during a field service call we ended up in Purgatory.
This Texas park is right next to Hell's Hills cemetery.
This shows proof everything you can imagine has a town, lake, river or park named after it in Texas.
More Examples:
Feeling a little Down? - Why not Visit
Smiley, Texas 78159, Paradise, Texas 76073, Rainbow, Texas 76077, Sweet Home, Texas 77987, Comfort, Texas 78013, Friendship, Texas 76530
Love the Sun?
Sun City, Texas 78628, Sunrise, Texas 76661, Sunset, Texas 76270, Sundown, Texas 79372, Sunray, Texas 79086, Sunny Side, Texas 77423
Want something to eat?
Bacon, Texas 76301, Noodle, Texas 79536, Oatmeal, Texas 78605, Turkey, Texas 79261, Trout, Texas 75789, Sugar Land, Texas 77479, Salty, Texas 76567, Rice, Texas 75155, Pearland, Texas 77581, Orange, Texas 77630
And top it off with: Sweetwater, Texas 79556
Why travel to other cities? Texas has them all!
Detroit, Texas 75436, Cleveland, Texas 75436, Colorado City, Texas 79512, Denver City, Texas 79323, Klondike, Texas 75448, Nevada, Texas 75173, Memphis, Texas 79245, Miami, Texas 79059, Boston, Texas 75570, Santa Fe, Texas 77517, Tennessee Colony, Texas 75861, Reno, Texas 75462, Pasadena, Texas 77506, Columbus, Texas 78934
Feel like traveling outside the country?
Athens, Texas 75751, Canadian, Texas 79014, China, Texas 77613, Egypt, Texas 77436, Ireland, Texas 76538, Italy, Texas 76538, Turkey, Texas 79261, London, Texas 76854, New London, Texas 75682, Paris, Texas 75460, Palestine, Texas 75801
No need to travel to Washington D.C., Whitehouse, Texas 75791
We even have a city named after our planet! Earth, Texas 79031
We have a city named after our state. Texas City, Texas 77590
Exhausted? Energy, Texas 76452, Pep, Texas 79353
Cold? Blanket, Texas 76432, Winters, Texas
Like to read about History? Santa Anna, Texas, Goliad, Texas, Alamo, Texas, Gun Barrel City, Texas, Robert Lee, Texas
Need Office Supplies? Staples, Texas 78670
Want to go into outer space? Venus, Texas 76084, Mars, Texas 79062
You guessed it. It's on the state line. Texline, Texas 79087
For the kids... Kermit, Texas 79745, Elmo, Texas 75118, Nemo, Texas 76070, Tarzan, Texas 79783, Winnie, Texas 77665, Sylvester, Texas 79560
Other city names in Texas Frognot, Texas 75424, Bigfoot, Texas 78005, Hogeye, Texas 75423, Cactus, Texas 79013, Notrees, Texas 79759, Best, Texas 76932, Veribest, Texas 76886, Kickapoo, Texas 75763, Dime Box, Texas 77853, Old Dime Box, Texas 77853, Telephone, Texas 75488, Telegraph, Texas 76883, Whiteface, Texas 79379, Twitty, Texas 79079
The Anti-Al Gore City - Kilgore, Texas 75662
Our favorites. Cut n Shoot, Texas, Gun Barrell City, Texas, Hoop And Holler, Texas, Ding Dong, Texas, Muleshoe, Texas
The wire at the bottom of this photo shows a very thin #18 gauge wire used to connect two large #14 gauge wires used on the high current General Illumination circuit on an Eight Ball Deluxe Limited Edition pinball game. The bridging wire is way too small to carry the current load of the G. I. circuit and got so hot you could not touch the wire when the game was turned on. Even worse, the small jumper wire was merely wrapped around the two wires near the transformer and was not wire nutted, soldered in or even taped. Whomever did this put a loose splice (wire nut) in the middle of the way too long jumper wire that ended up hanging right above the fuses to other game circuits (jumper moved to take photo).This situation could have either caused a fire in the computer server room where this machine was located or at the very least shorted out the transformer or even the game boards.
We are surely going to find more of this unique wiring method inside of this game and others we field service.
Submitted by PBM - Austin, Texas
'The LAME LIST'
We did an in-home service call on a Teenage Mutant Ninga Turtles video arcade game. The controls were not working and when we went to remove the control panel we found beer cans (cans, bottles and paper six pack cartons) laying on top of the plugged in power supply at the bottom of the game (A major fire hazard)!
We also found two used Bongs for smoking weed made out of plastic vacuum cleaner attachments that included the original floor lint inside each attachment. This was all removed in front of a very embarrassed game owner.
We probably got his kid grounded forever.
We wished we had taken some photos of the Bongs. Does lint add to the BUZZ you get from smoking marijuana?
Submitted by PBM - Austin, Texas
This game's owner tried to do some playfield Mylar removal using the "hot" or in this case the "way too hot" method. He took no time to do this the right way. Instead of using a hair dryer and some Goo-Gone to remove the Mylar and glue (This technique is a lost art form), he used a paint stripper hot air gun!
While this guy has no brains at all, it took a pair of really big pin balls to post these photos and admit to doing this to his good looking High Speed pinball machine.
We solute him for showing the worst technique for Mylar removal to the world.
 Before the flames |  After - The worst flame job we have ever seen. |
What we can't figure out is why, after the first section caught fire, this 'technique' was repeated.
Poor restoration education can be costly.
Submission - This is a 'classic' R.G.P. post.
While doing a routine game refurbishment, we took off the back box cover and immediately knew we had an addition to this page.
Other then being out of focus, can you spot what's wrong with this picture?
Click on the photo to reveal the problem or go here for a closer view
This game was "shopped out" by a large coin-op retailer from Chicago. The birth place of pinball!
This issue was running on the game for years and for some reason didn't short out!
It was being insulated by nothing but dirt. We just can't justify this kind of "repair".
Yet another reason to believe the term "shopped out" should never be associated with the term "refurbished"
Submitted by PBM - Austin, Texas
STUCK WITH STICKERS
Poor restoration education can be costly.
Submission - This is a 'classic' R.G.P. post.
While doing a routine game refurbishment, we took off the back box cover and immediately knew we had an addition to this page.
Other then being out of focus, can you spot what's wrong with this picture?
Click on the photo to reveal the problem or go here for a closer view
This game was "shopped out" by a large coin-op retailer from Chicago. The birth place of pinball!
This issue was running on the game for years and for some reason didn't short out!
It was being insulated by nothing but dirt. We just can't justify this kind of "repair".
Yet another reason to believe the term "shopped out" should never be associated with the term "refurbished"
Submitted by PBM - Austin, Texas
STUCK WITH STICKERS
Photos of tax tags, warning and coin-op repair advertising stickers that are permanently attached to the game in the worse locations imaginable.This situation is one of our biggest pet peeves next to people applying grease to everything inside of a game.
The game on the left was found mounted to the ceiling of a popular restaurant surrounded by rock and roll posters of local bands. Who knows, the posters might have been worth more then the game.
We like unique bumper stickers on a car, but don't try and improve the side art of a pinball with them. Otherwise, this Bonanza EM pinball would have been a good game to restore.
Submitted by PBM - Austin, Texas
Bad Jokes!
Q) What is a transistor?
A) A Priest who wears Nun's clothing.
Q) What do you call a lawyer who has gone bad?
A) Senator.
Here is what Jeff Foxworthy has to say about folks from Texas.
If someone in a Lowe's store offers you assistance and they don't work there, you may live in Texas;
If you've had a lengthy telephone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you may live in Texas;
If 'Vacation' means going anywhere south of Dallas for the weekend, you may live in Texas;
If you measure driving distance in hours, you may live in Texas;
If you know several people who have hit a deer more than once, you may live in Texas;
If you install security lights on your house and garage, but leave both unlocked, you may live in Texas;
If you carry jumper cables in your car and your wife knows how to use them, you may live in Texas
If the speed limit on the highway is 55 mph -- you're going 80 and everybody's passing you, you may live in Texas;
If you find 60 degrees 'a little chilly,' you may live in Texas;
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